Once a dealer has shaken hands and taken your payment, can he then decide he has underpriced the car and refuse to let you have it??
Found a mint low mileage Nissan Micra SVE auto for my wife today. She had her older Micra written off by a policeman in a bit too much of a hurry to respond to an incident.
Great car for the money, haggled a bit, shook hands. Paid for the car with a credit card - we needed to get a car today. I work away from home so can only get a car for wife on a Sat.
Called my ins company and arranged ins. Just about to leave when dealer decided that car had been underpriced (£6,299 instead of £5,299) and refused to let us have the car. Insisted that we have a refund. Should I have stood my ground? Didn't we have a contract?
Opinions gratefully received.
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He had offered the car for sale, you have a contract from your acceptance of his offer.
It is your car, he has no legitimate excuse for not completing the deal.
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Thank for the response. Is there anything I can do to enforce that ?
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hi a similar thing happened to my cousin - agreed to buy the car paid deposit, recieved a call saying that the salesman had underpriced himself and it was now going to cost a few grand more or lose some of the extras. my cousin didn't win his argument either - i didn't understand it then surely if you have a contract that is a binding legal contract?
or is this just a new way for dealers to try to score some extra cash - hoping that you'll agree to the higher price rather than lose your new car?
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He had offered the car for sale you have a contract from your acceptance of his offer.
Not the usual view which is that -
- his advertising the car is not an offer, it is an "invitation to treat"**.
- you make the offer when you say you want to buy it.
- his acceptance of your offer is what makes a contract. If he took the payment it would be pretty hard for him to argue he hasn't accepted the offer.
The end result is the same though - there does appear to be the basis of a contract, other things being equal. Better still if you have a copy of a signed order form. If you feel like pursuing it you might try pointing this out to him - if he doesn't give in though you will need legal help and then it becomes debatable whether trying to enforce the contract is worthwhile.
**this is why you can't make a shop sell you something they have accidentally stuck a ridiculously low price on.
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If legal help needed and you do not have some cover for that, I'd imagine if he won't budge then compromise might be help. He might have already refunded the credit car though.
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>>it becomes debatable whether trying to enforce the contract is worthwhile.
That's the nub of it - you would appear to have a contract but enforcing it is somethring else.
You'd have to buy a similar car elsewhere and then sue the dealer for the difference. Maybe you could also claim for inconvenience, cost of hire car etc. Perhaps a strongly worded letter (maybe from a solicitor) threatening them with ll manner of costs would make them complete the deal - assuming the car is still available - but it's not an ideal way to acquire a car.
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in my personal opinion, i would say they are not legally allowed to cancel.
Car price was invitation to treat. the haggling part was offers and counter offers and until both have accepted each others offer ie both parties involved have agreed a price for that vehicle. the acceptance of each others offer together with the fact that each party knows that by agreeing it will create a legally binding contract. the contract formed would be that of bilateral contract cos the offer due to haggling was just offered to you.
As the balance was paid in full, you have a better case but it depends on whether a contract was actually signed and whether or not you have a copy of it, if you have a copy of it, you will be in a very strong position in regards to getting the vehicle at the price you paid for it. As you have paid i would assume you had already signed the contract so it more to do with the copy of contract/invoice.
Through what i have found out so far, bearing in mind i dont have any experience at all in the field of law or similar, it is only through getting a business law book and searching through it.
In short i would say that you are legally entitled to what is your property now (the car).
snipmegaquote
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 19/01/2008 at 20:13
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I would have stood my ground.
As far as I can remember you only need 3 things to make a contract (just from my very limited study of contract law).
Offer, Acceptance and Consideration. It would seem all 3 were fulfilled!
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As others have said, you're in the right as regards contract law, but in practical terms
(a) if a refund is offered it'll be harder to justify damages if you take him to court
(b) if you took the Micra and it went wrong, the dealer, who is obviously useless, will be awkward
(c) there must be plenty of other similar Micras around, so for peace of mind you may be better off taking the refund and looking elsewhere.
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 19/01/2008 at 20:28
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NO is the answer, not once you've paid
One walks into a record store, see a cd at 1.99 you take it the cash desk they say it should be 13.99 they have a right to refuse to sell it at the price shown.
You pay for it, but the manager see it going through the tills, after you've paid, its too late- deal done thats their fault.
Re the dealer might be awkward- go to another service place, they'll probably over charge anyway.
you paid by credit card in full- get them on your side, and GENTLY persuade the garage to complete the deal -very few if any car deals are ever completed without senior agreement prior to completion- especially where negotiations are concerned
good luck with getting the car you want- always return when the showroom it is busy and talk very loudly if required !! I've done it and found it works
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You have paid in full the contract price. As long as you can prove it was offered at that price, the dealer is now in breach of contract.
He has a choice:
full refund plus your costs plus interest plus any consequentrial costs - these would be enforceable - as long as you HAVE a advert of document of sale sghowing what you paif is the FULL price.
or
take his chances in the Small Claims Court.
(where you could sue for the differences as outlined above so less than £5000?
Practically it may not nbe worth the effort and costs so you should insist on:
full and innediate return of price paid.
Interest on above at Libor plus 2% (7.5%)
your costs.
your travel costs.
your insurance costs etc.
If the boot was on the other foot, they would enforce it and screw you.
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As you've accepted the refund (as I read your post) nothing more can be done.
BUT... would you REALLY have been happy, buying the car, if you'd have insisted in enforcing the original contract?
Can't imagine it's the best way to start off !!
VB
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